Snow
by Diego Zeyon
Summary: It reminded her of the fire extinguisher. That reminded her of the dance in space. And then she realized that that was all she wanted, really... another dance.


I've never done a oneshot before. Ever. I didn't believe I could accomplish a story in less than one chapter. I'm not sure I succeeded even here, but I certainly tried. Even though this thing was started and finished in about the space of half an hour.

Why WALL•E? Because I got the DVD for Christmas and watched it twice in a row today because the movie is _just that awesome._ It's easily the best movie I've ever seen. I'll be surprised if I find a movie that can possibly top it. I'm being very serious.

This is also my first attempt at what could be called 'romance,' though it probably hardly falls into that category. Hence 'Friendship.'

Merry Christmas.

WALL•E is copyright to Disney/Pixar, and I'm glad I don't own it, because if I did it wouldn't have turned out nearly as well as it did.

Also, in case this idea's been used before and I haven't noticed... Sorry!

* * *

EVE had not been programmed to know what snow was. Indeed, none of the robots--even WALL•E--knew what strange substance fell from the sky for the first time that day, almost seventy-five years afer the _Axiom_'s landing. At first she equated it with extinquisher foam, and remembered fondly their dance in space around the _Axiom._

The humans had retreated inside their homes, afraid of the white crystals. They did nothing to the robots--EVE and WALL•E had elected to stay outside--but who knew what the stuff would do to soft, malleable human flesh?

Then EVE took a closer look. Blue light poured forth in a gridlike pattern and scanned the substance where it lay, thick and soft, upon the ground surrounding WALL•E's truck.

_Substance is 98.754% water; other contaminations exist in minute amounts composing the remaining 1.246%_

"Wa...ter?" EVE said slowly.

"Wwwaat...ur," echoed WALL•E. "Evah," he continued, pointing up. Her head tilted, following his gaze. The stars that the two would often sit out and watch were hidden completely by a blanket of clouds.

_Statement: Clouds contain moisture, producing rain. Assumption: Substance is rain in a semifrozen state?_

"Kuh...lowds," sighed WALL•E. "No...space."

"It's really kinda pretty, when you take the time to look at it."

EVE and WALL•E spun around in surprise. Bobby MacCrea, the former Captain's son, smiled lopsidedly. "Kinda cold, though," he added, water vapor rising from his mouth with every word.

"Cold...?" asked WALL•E, who certainly understood temperature as a value but did not have sensors to actually feel the temperature.

"I wonder," said MacCrea, bending down heavily--for he was still bulky, though not quite to the extent that his father was--and picking up a handful of the stuff. He shivered. "Cold. But I wonder if this is what the ship's computer said... If this is snow."

"Snn..oo," WALL•E sounded hesitently.

"Cold...water," EVE explained. "Not...rain, not... frozen."

"Ooh," said WALL•E, his curiosity instantly aroused.

"...Space," said EVE finally. WALL•E looked at her and beeped inquisitively.

"Dance," EVE finished.

"Da...anz?" inquired WALL•E.

EVE thought for a moment, then shot up into the air, looking around for a certain object. After a moment she returned to WALL•E, a fire extinguisher in her fins.

WALL•E took it, stared at it a moment as if in thought, then looked sadly back at EVE. "No...fly...Earth..."

Of course. EVE smacked her subroutines digitally. There was gravity on Earth. WALL•E couldn't use the extinguisher to fly. She was disappointed for a moment, and then remembered that she herself could fly. And WALL•E was certainly no burden.

She looked hesitantly at MacCrea for a moment, who managed to get the message and backed off, still smiling, and strode off into the assortment of houses, shouting that it was fine to come out, the stuff was harmless.

There was silence for a moment.

"...Dance?" she asked hestitantly.

WALL•E didn't understand. He couldn't dance with her--not in the same way. "Not...sssame," he insisted.

"Same," disagreed EVE gently. "Dance? Please?" She held out a fin in their well-used "Hold my hand?" gesture. WALL•E closed his claw around her fin.

"...Dance," he agreed.

MacCrea came back with a crowd of interested people behind him, but the two robots were not where they'd been. He looked up, and visible through the gently coasting white snow there was a solid white shape with a blue corona behind it, with a yellow cube clutched firmly in its grasp and a red cylinder within the grip of the cube. They were rising; and soon they disappeared beyond the clouds.

In the snow on Earth, standing upon the ground, MacCrea smiled. Around him--and the rest of the people--snow fell gently for the first time in nearly a millenia.

In the space near Earth, on the fringes of its gravitational field, two robots danced. There followed behind them what could easily have passed for snow.


End file.
